Reduction of vincristine toxicity by Cronassial.

A mixture of gangliosides (Cronassial) protects against the chronic but not the acute lethal toxicity of vincristine in mice and affords some protection against the acute lethal toxicity of vincristine in chicks. The protective effect of Cronassial appears to be greatest near the LD50 of vincristine and then diminishes as the dose of vincristine increases further. Cronassial does not, however, reduce the vincristine antitumour activity, so that the net effect is an improvement in the vincristine therapeutic index. Clinical trials are underway to examine the effect of the combination on the development of neurotoxicity in cancer patients.